Introducing the first Android prototype
NEW YORK — A small software developer today plans to unveil a suite of applications — browser, camera, games and more — based on the new Google-endorsed operating system, Android. — A La Mobile, based in San Ramon, Calif. …
Context & Ripple Effects
Android has moved fast from announcement to hardware: Google unveiled the platform in early November 2007 with a carrier-and-handset coalition behind it, shipped an early-look SDK within two weeks, and by mid-December a prototype was already circulating outside Google's labs. What was missing was proof that third-party software actually runs on real phones.
A La Mobile supplies that proof today: a small San Ramon developer showing a browser, camera support and games built on the Google-endorsed OS — with Engadget noting the build runs on aging HTC hardware, which matters because it suggests Android does not need new silicon to function. The breadth of pickup across outlets on the same day signals how starved coverage of the platform was for anything beyond slide decks and SDK screenshots.
First-order effects
- A La Mobile gets first-mover visibility as the first named third-party developer demonstrating shipping-quality applications on Android, ahead of the platform's commercial devices.
- Google gains its most concrete rebuttal yet to skepticism that Android was vaporware — including the view voiced this week by commentator Thomas Howe that five constituencies, from carriers to incumbents, would not welcome the platform.
Second-order effects
- Handset makers weighing whether to commit to Android now have evidence the OS runs on existing HTC-class hardware, lowering the engineering risk of joining Google's coalition rather than licensing incumbent mobile platforms.
- Other would-be Android application developers get a working reference point for what the SDK can deliver, accelerating a race to have demos ready when the first commercial devices arrive.
Third-order effects
- If third-party builds keep appearing on old handsets, the argument shifts from 'can Android work?' to 'who controls the mobile stack' — an opening for a search company to extend its distribution model onto the phone at the expense of closed carrier-controlled platforms.
The trend: Mobile operating systems are shifting from carrier-locked proprietary stacks toward open, advertiser-backed platforms like Android, with independent developers serving as the proof-of-viability layer between SDK and device.